His World
by Kermit's Soft Kitty
Summary: No-one told Tony Stark he would be the last guy standing. One-shot. Happy ending? You decide.


His World

* * *

Tony Stark was the last to die.

Contrary to the opinion that he would be the first to go due to his vulnerable civilian lifestyle, the old bastard lasted the longest out of all the self-sacrificial superheroes purely through whimsical luck.

Surprisingly enough, poor old Bruce was the first to go. He was pinned down after one point in a battle and injected with an intergalactic toxin that dragged him back into his human form. From there they shot him, leaving little to the imagination as to how the wonderfully friendly and warm scientist had been before his mutilation.

The Avengers cleaned him up, dressed him in simple clothes and replaced his wire-rimmed glasses back on his calm face before burying him in a plain but poignant grave.

His headstone simply read:

'_A Hero. Underestimated but never under loved by those who surrounded him.'_

Natasha's death was swift and painless: stabbed through the heart by someone who had been relatively close to them at the time. Needless to say that the attacker hadn't survived long after that. Clint was wrought with devastation, cradling Natasha's limp body in his arms for nigh on three hours straight. In those three hours the remaining Avengers sat beside him and listened to Clint's story on how he met Natasha and how wonderful she had always been. She was buried next to Bruce without a headstone, as per requested beforehand. Clint visited with Tony every single day and placed a simple blood red rose on the ground as a memorial, right next to Bruce's fragrant white lily.

People expected Clint to bite the dust next. But it was Thor who died next, a revelation that no-one had ever predicted before. He was slaughtered in the act of defending his homeworld: Asgard. After Loki released Ragnorak upon the glorious city shrouded in stars, they were sent spiralling into disarray. Thor was sliced across the neck by his own brother in a blind act of mistake upon trying to defend his own life with an enchanted blade designed to kill anything.

And that anything had been Thor.

Steve, Tony and Clint wouldn't deny the warm tears trickling down their cheeks as they watched Loki howl to the worlds around him, clutching fruitlessly at his brother's dead body and screaming at Hel to trade his life for Thor's. Thor was given a burial ceremony upon the ruins of Asgard but his winged helmet was given to the remaining Avengers to bury beside the bodies of Natasha and Bruce. He had a headstone that simply read:

'_A Brother. A Son. A Warrior. A Hero.'_

Clint died peacefully in his sleep, his grief about losing Natasha suddenly overwhelming him in a sudden surge of depressive emotion three days after Thor's burial. JARVIS didn't register any influx of toxins in Clint's bloodstream and so Steve and Tony sadly acknowledged that Clint thought it was his time to go. He was buried with Coulson's remaining Captain America trading cards and his own bow, also without a headstone for privacy reasons. Steve and Tony, now frequently accompanied with Pepper, placed a poppy on Thor's grave and a white rose on Clint's to contradict Natasha's red one. They occasionally stood there for a long, long time, regaling tales of movie nights, great battles and those times when Thor would break the toaster to get at the Poptarts.

Steve died in battle, remembered and honoured as a hero and the soldier he truly was. There were many things he could withstand, but a bullet to the brain wasn't one of them. He stayed alive long enough to look up at the sky, to look up into Tony's glittering eyes and whisper his croaking apologies before he passed into the void, promising he'd seen him again soon.

Tony stayed there for a long time wiping the blood away from Steve's blonde hair until Pepper came to wrap her arms around him gently, pressing sad kisses to his temple and saying that it was time to let him go. Steve was buried with the Howling Commando's but a special grave was set up like Thor's, in which his suit sat in a sealed, airtight box. Tony split his time now between both sets of marble headstones, allowing his tears to flow for the loss of his family, his life, his world.

And then the inevitable happened.

Pepper Stark died on a night out, cradled in Tony's shaking arms as she bled over him, scarlet blood staining his dinner jacket. She whispered promises that she'd see him very soon, that he should live his life regardless that she wasn't going to be there with him. He asked her how he was meant to live now, now that he didn't have his wife to support him and love him like only she could. She laughed, called him an idiot and told him about the years he coped without her and told him he still had his 'bots and JARVIS.

He told her that it wasn't the same.

He told her that she was his life and without her there wasn't a point in breathing anymore.

She told him that if she saw him too quickly in the afterlife, she'd slap his head in.

She died smiling, cradled by the man she loved with all of her heart, looking up at the face she'd fallen in love with all those years ago: those beautiful brown eyes, that wonderful smile.

The last piece of Tony Stark's family passed away in his arms.

No-one ever warned Tony Stark he'd have to go through all of this pain. No-one ever warned him he'd have to watch his family get picked off one by one until there was only him, the guy who everyone thought would die first. He spent the next ten years of his life as happily as he could; remembering Pepper's warning and knowing she'd carry it out. He kept on being Iron Man, saved people's lives and spread wonderful stories about The Avengers; about his family.

It was one late night, upon the eleventh year anniversary of Pepper's death where he lay in his empty bed, gazing out over the New York skyline when someone appeared. JARVIS didn't notice any intruder and therefore stayed silent: Tony knew instantly what was going on. The figure was as beautiful as she had been the last time he had seen her, scarlet hair floating down to her slim shoulders, gorgeous blue eyes shining down at him.

Pepper held out her hand.

"It's time, sweetheart."

Tony didn't hesitate and reached out with his hand, watching his wedding ring shimmer in her glowing light. She gave him a light tug and suddenly he felt free. He turned back, found himself lying on his bed as though he'd just fallen asleep: aged and tired and in well need of eternal rest.

Tony glanced down at his hands, realised that they were as young as they had been the day that he met the Avengers as a whole team. He turned to Pepper who beamed up at him and entwined his fingers with her own.

"They're waiting for you, shellhead."

Tony smiled at her and let Pepper take him through the void, towards his team, towards his family.

* * *

Things went on after Tony's death; the world kept turning. His inheritance was passed down to a young lad going by the name of Peter Parker whom Tony had met a long, long time ago and gotten on well with. Peter Parker, with the help of some friends made sure that Stark Industries went on running as smoothly as she had been all those years before. The stock market boomed. The company had never been as prosperous.

Tony was buried next to Pepper with a single arc reactor: the first one he had ever made all that time ago in the cave in Afghanistan. The S.H.I.E.L.D agents who performed the process explained to the public the poignancy of the piece of technology. It would go on running forever after the upgrade to a Vibranium core: the light would never diminish

Just like his and the Avengers' legacy.

* * *

Eh. This is a bit depressing. I played around with it but this is the outcome. I don't know – I was crying when I wrote it so maybe I was upset.

All mistakes are my own as I do not have a beta.

Enjoy:3

Kermit.


End file.
